Tony Blair Justice Philip Sales
In what is a consolation victory for the Labour Party’s establishment in the Court of Appeal, it has been revealed by WikiLeaks that there may be more to the decision than meets the eye.

After Sir Philip Sales QC overruled the previous High Court decision to allow the 130,000 disenfranchised Labour Party members to vote in the up and coming leadership election – notorious whistle-blower Wikileaks revealed that Sales had been a Blair insider for years, having been recruited as Junior Counsel to the Crown in 1997.

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#Corbyn vote exclusion Court of Appeal judge Philip Sales was Blair insider for years http://is.gd/sales1 & http://is.gd/sales2
5:53 PM - 12 Aug 2016
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The literature cited by WikiLeaks confirms that immediately after Labour’s victory in the 1997 general election, Sales was recruited by Tony Blair. Interestingly, it also reveals that Sales used to be a practising barrister at law chambers 11KBW, of which Tony Blair was a founder member. At the time of the appointment, there was uproar over Sales’ appointment and plunged Blair into a cronyism row.

According to The Guardian’s coverage of the sexual discrimination case brought against Sales’ appointment, a source close to the case referred to 11KBW as a ‘network of old boys and cronies’, and that there was ‘no coincidence that the appointment came from Lord Irvine’s and Tony Blair’s old chambers’.

Since his appointment in 1997, Sir Philip Sales managed to rack up a hefty bill to the taxpayer as the highest earning lawyer in the entire government. Moreover, as a key part of Blair’s legal team, he also defended the Government’s decision against holding a public inquiry into the Iraq War in the High Court in 2005.

Clearly, there is no evidence of wrongdoing, only that of a conflict of interest. Sales’ deep involvement in the Labour Party during the Blair years will raise questions about the legitimacy of his shock ruling in favour of the National Executive Committee, especially as there was an evident breach of contract.

........Smith will most likely win the £25 sign-up vote too; as many right-minded middle class and working class people, are tired of the Corbyn rhetoric that has bought almost nothing in the past ten months for the people Labour is meant to serve.

They have realised that effective opposition to a Conservative Government’s austerity programme will never be made to work by the divisive and blinkered extremes of a Corbyn-led cadre of second-rate minds.

Those who do not share their view of the world are dismissed as neo-liberals or worse as ‘Blairite’ elitists hell-bent on protecting capitalism’s vested interest.

If MPs declare their opposition to Corbyn, bully boy McCluskey threatens to target them with deselection.

Oppose them as a Jewish donor and the riposte from Seumas Milne, Corbyn’s mouthpiece, is that you are part of a Blairite, Right-wing ‘conspiracy’ (the ancient racist rhetoric is that Jews don’t act alone, the malevolent Jew always conspires) to destabilise the democratically and legitimately elected leader.

P Teddy Sawyer
I did some work in Neil Kinnock's constituency in the eighties and found the community was very cruelly divided. If you criticised him you were militantly shunned. Kinnock cleared the way for Blair.

Tony Gosling
Agreed P Teddy Sawyer. While Home Secretary under Wilson Callaghan was toeing the line on the Northern Ireland show the army and Carrington were running from behind the scenes. He kept the briefings he was getting from them secret from the cabinet and as such was groomed to take over when Wilson was pushed out. Blair was being groomed from the late 1980s. Bilderberg Athens 1993 then BINGO! The criminal elite hit the Middle East jackpot.

No matter how hard you listen it’s impossible to hear the Blairite wing of Labour. They have shut up shop. The Progress website looks like it’s being maintained by interns, while there are no official Progress events being held until the day after the leadership election (Angela Eagle and a venture capitalist, since you ask).

During their attempt to stop Corbyn getting on the ballot paper, the right launched Saving Labour — there’s no information about where it gets its money, who its officers are, what it’s statues are. It organised a day of street stalls, issued three press releases and went quiet on 28 July.
It’s been superseded by “Labour Tomorrow” — a private company with a reported £250,000 war chest to fight Jeremy Corbyn once he wins. This money will be distributed only to “moderate centre left organisations”. No other other information provided on its website apart from a single blog post by David Blunkett and Cold War union rightwinger Brenda Dean. No explanation of what “centre left” means, again no indication of where the money’s coming from.
The purpose of this Blairite* dumb-show is to foist the entire job of keeping Labour under the control of the neoliberal elite onto the soft left around Owen Smith.
The aim, clearly, is to reduce the ballot to: which face would you like to see at PMQs? Perky, untested, bland, technocratic Owen, or gnarled, unpredictable Jeremy? The massive differences in policy, strategy and class orientation signalled by the emergence of Labour Tomorrow are not to be allowed to surface in the actual election itself.
Thus, Smith’s campaign has been designed as Jeremy Lite. Nearly as left wing as Corbyn, only competent at playing the parliamentary game. Close to Corbyn, but a bit “more patriotic” and less “metropolitan”.
To facilitate the illusion that this is about two left wingers with marginal disagreements, something else had to go quiet: the tabloid media. There has been almost no right-wing criticism of Smith’s faux-left programme in the papers.
Normally, if a Labour figure stood up and, from thin air, plucked a £200bn spending pledge based on a wealth tax, the Sun, the Mail and the Telegraph would have reporters going through his bin-bags.
It’s the same 0ver Smith’s call for a second referendum. The pr0-Brexit tabloids would normally be eviscerating any Labour figure who called, effectively, for people to be made to “vote until they vote the right way”. But they’re silent over this.
Revealingly, the second referendum call is the kind of gestural trick that you can only pull off if you’ve no chance of winning. What if people vote for Brexit again? — Smith has no answer and is never asked. But coping with the actual Brexit process, as actual Leader of the Opposition, is the practical question Corbyn has to deal with now. It involves consultation, juggling the various Labour interest groups: Scotland, the unions, northern MPs etc.
Smith has named no putative shadow cabinet. He has made no attempt to define his future relationship with the Blairites, or the Brown-era veterans such as Yvette Cooper who stood down last Summer. There’s no plan because the Owen campaign does not believe Owen himself would ever be allowed to call the shots. If Corbyn is defeated it will be Peter Mandelson, Brenda Dean and David Blunkett calling the shots. And behind them millionaires like Michael Foster who called Corbyn’s supporters “sturm abteilung”.
This summer of Labour right omertà reached its nadir yesterday when Smith inadvertently blurted out that he wanted Britain to negotiate “round the table” with ISIS.
Corbyn immediately and clearly rejected the idea. If Corbyn had said it though, the right would have screamed blue murder. It was quietly put to bed by Fleet Street, with a retraction. Instead the headlines were about Corbyn failing to recognise a picture of B-list celebrities Ant and Dec, with the New Statesman rushing out an immediate condemnation of Corbyn’s alleged “disrespect for popular culture”.
Smith is part of a whole generation of Labour MPs who sounded left wing, but you could never quite place what was left about them. They have willingly shouldered the task of keeping Labour under the influence of big pharma, big finance and big war. And they are losing.
Neither Smith, nor his backer Ed Miliband, nor any of those around them, have bothered to give an account of why Labour failed in 2015. But the right have. For the Blairites the failure of 2015 happened because Miliband was too left wing. Because he failed to reach out to the mythical “centre” of politics. Plus — and remember these are the supposed ultra-Europeanists of Labour — they want tougher rhetoric against immigration.
Since key Blairite nabobs were seen running Angela Eagle’s office during her short-lived leadership bid, and since Eagle has given way to Smith as a “unity candidate”, it would be logical to ask: what does Owen Smith think of the Blairite right and its project. What’s Owen’s relationship to Progress, Saving Labour and Labour Tomorrow?
But nobody asks it. Not the media. Not the TV anchors, because they’re too busy spitting the word “Trotskyist” and “antisemite” into the faces of pro-Corbyn interviewees.
At the Gateshead hustings, and even more so at the Nottingham one televised by the BBC, something that should have been obvious about Smith finally emerged. He doesn’t seem to believe in anything.
Sure, he has “policies”. But they are, in general, whatever Jeremy says only less. And he’s a patriot. And he has a “normal family”.
Smith’s conversion to Jeremy Lite socialism is so shallow and recent that there is no backstory to it. With Tony Benn you understood how he moved from the centre to the left; the same with Ed Miliband, who had to be dissuaded by his minders from visiting the student occupation of UCL in 2010.
With Owen Smith it is never clear where, on the road from BBC Wales, via Pfizer, via the years as a special adviser in Belfast surrounded by all those nice members of MI5, via losing Blaenau Gwent to an independent because he was too identified with Blair… at what point did Owen become converted to Jeremy Lite left radical socialism?
This combination — of high personal ambition and the lack of a permanent belief system — is exactly the right attribute for someone whose purpose is to be a placeholder for the Blairite counter-revolution. Who can forget, after all, that Angela Eagle — the original placeholder — launched her campaign without a single policy.
Smith is there to remove the grip of Corbyn, and Corbynism on those few parts of the Labour machine it controls. After that the money amassed by Saving Labour, Progress and Labour Tomorrow will be used to fund the party’s re-conversion to a safe tool of the global elite. It will be back to normal.
At every stage, the pro-1% Labour machine has tried to suppress democracy: it tried to force Corbyn off the ballot paper; it tried to debar new, pro-Corbyn members from voting; it tried to produce a new Labour leader without a vote; it imposed an arbitrary cut-off date for new members voting.
At the same time the Labour right is promoting an series of largely unfounded victim narratives: that “Corbyn is antisemitic” (backed up with a defamatory attack on Shami Chakrabarti). It’s promoted the narrative of misogyny, of physical threats, of “Trotskyist entrism”, of Corbyn “sabotaging” the Remain campaign.
We must anticipate the outcome of this — on the principle that Chekov outlined in theatre: if a gun appears in Act I, by the end of Act III someone is going to get shot.
Every signal from the Labour right appears to point towards a second coup against Corbyn, once he wins the leadership election, which will make Owen Smith’s current effort look like a sideshow.
The plan was spelled out in the Bagehot column of the Economist two weeks ago: declare yourselves “True Labour” in parliament; claim the legal role of HM Opposition; attempt to take unions and CLPs with you — if necessary by bureaucratic declarations; fight for the party’s name and assets in the courts on the grounds that it is you — the breakaway group — which truly represents Labour’s social democratic heritage. Bagehot advises the Labour coup-plotters:
“True Labour’s role would then not be to compete amicably with Mr Corbyn’s “Labour” but to marginalise or, ideally, destroy it by appropriating the Labour mantle through sheer weight, dynamism and persuasiveness. I see few reasons to believe that such a party would lack the talent, prominence, funding potential and organisational ability to do so.”
You may ask: what does the Bagehot column in the perennially neoliberal Economist know? Well its author is Jeremy Cliffe, formerly intern at the Party of European Socialists in Brussels, aide to Chuka Umunna and activist in the Ed Miliband for Leader campaign. He’s written a perceptive policy paper on the cosmopolitanisation of British politics and is probably one of the best informed UK journalists in the sphere of Labour and European social democracy.
So join the dots. The fact that the Court of Appeal judges took seriously Labour HQ’s fears of “entryism”, when they OK-d the retrospective disenfranchisement of 130k Labour members, tells you where this is going.
The whole “violence, anti-semitism, misogyny and Trotskyism” scare is designed to end up as the small print of an Appeal Court — or Supreme Court — judgment, once Bagehot’s plan is put into action.
That, if you are mystified, is why they are pushing it so assiduously; why when one scare dies out they promote another, no matter how ludicrous or unfounded. And why — apart from the victim narrative — senior Blairite politicians are saying nothing political in public, appearing nowhere alongside Smith, and suppressing the very real criticisms they have in private of Owen’s dire hustings performance, and his Jeremy-Lite left socialism.
In all this, Smith and his backers have a choice to make. Are they going to be the willing accomplices of the real coup, which lies ahead? Right now they acting like willing dupes: like the Auguste clown at the circus, who stands there pretending he doesn’t know the Whiteface clown has a custard pie behind his back. But that can’t go on.
Smith has held a spate of risibly small street rallies, whose low-point was the “ice cream van” rally in Liverpool (pictured) and whose high point has yet to be reached. His campaign is foundering.
But it is having one tangible effect: to tank Labour in the polls. A whole new genre of polling has been invented designed to show that Labour voters prefer the Theresa May to Corbyn. Soon, on the basis of these polls, some obliging person in Labour HQ will draw up a list of seats Labour expects to lose in the next election. Then the list will be leaked.
But Labour activists should, for now, ignore the polls and the projections. After Brexit we are no longer in an electoral “cycle”. UKIP’s collapse — to 6% in one poll — is fuelling the Tories and the Labour infighting is doing the rest.
The polls that matter will be those that register: a) the impact of Corbyn as Labour leader and the effect of any Labour unity initiative that happens when he wins; b) the potential crack-up of UKIP and which way its voters break c) how people feel once the Tory Brexit begins sucking the life out of the economy, combined with a Boris-led fiasco in the exit negotiations.
But the “bad polling narrative” is important for what the right is planning next. If we turn the Bagheot plan into a timeline it goes like this.
On 22 August the voting starts. By 5 September when parliament returns for two weeks it will be clear Smith has no chance of winning. There is one final opportunity for Labour rebels to try and destroy Corbyn using parliamentary sabotage. We will see the same humiliation and bullying techniques they’ve deployed, from the back benches — with comrade Owen smiling his approval from beside the Speaker’s chair, never joining in of course, and “deploring intimidation”.
Once that fails, the next phase will begin just before the 24 September special conference. This will be the phase of splits, legal actions, High Court rulings and attempts at the physical seizure of the party’s assets. That’s what these ominous one-page websites of Saving Labour and Labour Tomorrow are preparations for.
It won’t be led by Owen Smith. Like Angela Eagle before him, he will be squeezed out like a tube of toothpaste and discarded. But at that point Smith and the soft left MPs around him have to decide what they’re going to do.
Right now, they understand Jeremy-Lite is not working. There’s an argument inside the Smith team between those who want him to set out policy alternatives to Corbyn; and those who want simply to up the tempo of personal attacks on Corbyn, over competence, security etc.
Logically, the only way to make the “attack Corbyn” tactic work would be to drag up his record as an anti-imperialist (or as the Tories put it “a security risk”). If Smith goes for the latter, he is effectively signalling the end of any attempt to win over the pro-Corbyn left.
Meanwhile the Blairites could not give a * whether Owen Smith backs talks with ISIS, favours a mild fiscal stimulus or ending the public sector pay freeze; or whether Corbyn supported a united Ireland. They do not intend to be in the same party as Jeremy Corbyn’s 300,000+ supporters come Christmas and they are deeply relaxed about whether Owen Smith and his mates will come along for the ride.
With every Labour hustings that does not bring meltdown for Corbyn, Smith and his supporters face a looming choice. Are they going to go on playing the willing dupe to Blairism, or — when the time comes — fight Blairism in alliacne with Corbyn’s supporters?
Sadly for Smith’s camp, the sequences overlap. On 5 September parliament will be back and Owen is either with Corbyn against the #BagehotCoup, or agin him. By 24 September, it will be a straight fight for the body and soul of Labour, against people who believe MPs like Nandy, Malhotra etc crossed the line of acceptability when they agreed even to be in Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet.
Smith should end his leadership challenge now. If he can’t, theres still a way of de-weap0nising it for the right. Smith’s aides could indicate they will refuse to join a split; they could pledge — now not later — to respect the legal right of the winner of the race to run the Labour Party; and pledge to collaborate in the work of opposing the Tories in parliament.
The price for Corbyn should be — again, now not later — to offer them specific posts in a unity shadow cabinet, clear input into the leader’s office and the HQ, and a Labour policy agenda that compromises between what Corbyn’s supporters want, and what Smith’s want. The result would be to negate Blairism and speed its exit from the party.
* Throughout this article I use the term Blairite and Blairism as a political category, not a term of abuse.
I corrected a few typos – thanks for pointing them out_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

‘…Born-again-socialist Owen Smith gave an interview to the Telegraph in 2006 in which he said he had no areas of difference with Tony Blair. Smith told the paper he opposed the Iraq War, despite previously praising it, but then claimed he agreed with Blair on everything else. Here is the excerpt from the interview:

oilysmith

Would he describe himself as a socialist?

“I am a democratic socialist, yes.”

And Mr Blair, is he a socialist?

“Yes.”

Mr Smith, 36, believes the Law movement is no more than a political spasm. “Their campaign is about the past and reminding people about the past. We are looking to the future.” Trying not to sound like a New Labour clone, Mr Smith dips his toe in a puddle of controversy. “The invasion of Iraq was a mistake,” he offers. “The world would have been a safer place if we hadn’t done it.”
Any other areas of difference with Mr Blair?

“No, I don’t think so.”

On Iraq, he had previously praised the war to his local paper and refused to say he would’ve voted against. So the truth is he agreed with Blair on everything. He’s now shamelessly claiming to be Corbynista-lite to win votes, but this is why Labour types who know Smith describe him as “more Blairite than Blair”…'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

BBC’s ‘Biased’ Jeremy Corbyn Coverage Sparks Rows Between Broadcaster And Media Analyst
BBC accused of slander after defending Labour coup coverage.
29 July 2016
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_579b52e7e4b0f42daa4a2678
Kathryn Snowdon News reporter, The Huffington Post UK
A row has broken out between the BBC and the author of a media report that described the broadcaster as “a mouthpiece for the right wing press” following claims of “clear and consistent bias” against Jeremy Corbyn.

The study from The Media Reform Coalition and Birkbeck, University of London, analysed TV and online news during the 10 days after the wave of resignations from the Labour leader’s shadow cabinet.

The report accused the BBC of giving twice as much airtime to Corbyn’s critics than to his supporters on some programmes during the crisis following the Brexit vote.

JACK TAYLOR VIA GETTY IMAGES
A row has broken out between the BBC and the author of a media report about the broadcaster’s alleged ‘bias’ against Jeremy Corbyn.
Report author Dr Justin Schlosberg hit out at the BBC after the broadcaster defended its coverage.

A BBC spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “BBC News adheres to its editorial guidelines to report with due impartiality. We are confident our coverage of Labour’s unprecedented en masse frontbench resignation was impartial and we continue to air views from both sides of the party’s ongoing divisions.”

The spokesperson added that the Media Reform Coalition was a “vested interest group” and had only analysed some BBC programmes over ten days, acknowledging itself that the sample did not reflect the breadth of the BBC’s news coverage.

But Schlosberg accused the BBC of being “a mouthpiece for the right wing press” after their statement.

“The Media Reform Coalition was founded by world-renowned professors including James Curran and research carried out by academics at Birkbeck and Goldsmiths, University of London.

“Rather than engage constructively with that research, which is what we appealed for in the report, they chose to slander us.

“This is exactly the problem: the BBC has become a mouthpiece for the right wing press.”

MEDIA REFORM COALITION
The research measured how much airtime and online coverage was focused on Corbyn’s allies and opponents.

The report stated there was “a marked and persistent imbalance in favour of sources critical of Jeremy Corbyn, the issues that they sought to highlight, and the arguments they advanced”.

As Corbyn faced mass resignations, the report’s authors accused the mainstream media of “imbalanced reporting” that could affect the democratic process, finding the BBC’s flagship 6pm evening TV bulletins gave double the amount of airtime to Corbyn’s political enemies than those still backing him.

In contrast, it found the ITV evening news bulletins, and the BBC’s online news were “relatively balanced” in their reporting.

The report took in 40 prime time television news bulletins on BBC One and ITV during the period, and 465 online news articles from 8 websites, between 27 June and 6 July. It looked at stories around the Labour leadership crisis, the party’s planned anti-semitism report and Corbyn’s response to the Chilcot report.

The Media Reform Coalition is not officially aligned with any political party, but has previously published studies that present Corbyn as under fire by the media.

It published research in 2015 claiming Corbyn was ‘systematically’ attacked by British press in his first few weeks as Labour leader.

In today’s report, called ‘Should he stay or should he go?’ it commented that it was “not surprising” that the country’s conservative press did not support Corbyn, but said that the “trusted” medium of TV was governed by “strict rules” on impartiality._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

Who is appointed to the Labour shadow cabinet has always been a cause for minor controversy, but the spotlight has been even more on the opposition frontbench since June. It started when the original shadow cabinet began resigning in the aftermath of Brexit. For a strange time over the summer, it seemed like loyalty to the embattled leader was enough to earn you a spot in the top team. But now that Jeremy Corbyn has decisively won his re-election, the power has shifted. So who, in the era of Corbynism, are the chosen ones? We give you the lowdown:

Leader of the Labour party: Jeremy Corbyn

In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote in June, the MP for Islington North was abandoned by one after another of his shadow cabinet and faced a leadership challenge from Owen Smith. The shadow cabinet limped on with the help of Corbyn loyalists, and in September, Corbyn beat his rival to win a second overwhelming mandate for party leadership.

Corbyn's victory confirmed the party's shift to the left, but for some dissidents in the parliamentary Labour party, the problems with the leader were primarily about his managerial style and character. Has Corbyn learnt from the coup? To lose one shadow cabinet would be misfortune, but to lose two would be carelessness.

Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: John McDonnell

Scourge of New Labour and veteran of the party’s left, John McDonnell has long been an ally of Corbyn. The MP for Hayes and Harlington ran the Labour leader’s initial leadership campaign, and was rewarded with the shadow chancellorship once he had won. He has held the same position ever since, surviving a few gaffes ranging from briefly supporting George Osborne’s fiscal charter to brandishing Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book during the Autumn Statement last year.

Before becoming shadow chancellor, McDonnell – an MP since 1997 – was chiefly known for his work on the Greater London Council, attempting to enter the Labour leadership race in 2010 (he didn’t get the nominations), and controversial remarks about the IRA that nearly got him suspended. While McDonnell’s more polished media style sometimes has commentators’ tongues wagging (and a few socialists privately pining) about him replacing Corbyn, he is a less palatable figure among the PLP; it’s likely he would never have made the ballot as Corbyn did. But his tenure as shadow chancellor is a secure one.

Deputy leader of the Labour party: Tom Watson

The MP for West Bromwich East was elected to his position at the same time as Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, and attempted to remain a bridge between the parliamentary Labour party and his leader as relations deteriorated. But Watson and Corbyn were soon at blows. The deputy leader complained the party was being infiltrated by "Trotskyists", and Corbyn responded by telling him to stop "talking nonsense". Watson also reportedly criticised Corbyn for removing Ashworth from the NEC.

Shadow home secretary: Diane Abbott

Jeremy Corbyn’s closest ally in Parliament and a veteran of three decades of internecine conflict within the party, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington was the first black woman to be elected to Parliament ever in 1987 and is the first black person to hold or shadow a great office of state in British history.

Prior to Corbyn’s elevation to the leadership, she carved out a niche as a regular presence on the airwaves, particularly on the BBC political programme This Week.

Shadow foreign secretary: Emily Thornberry

An MP since 2005, this is Thornberry’s fourth role on Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench. She also served in Ed Miliband’s top team as shadow attorney general but was forced to resign after sending a supposedly snobbish tweet during the 2015 general election campaign (defenders point out she was raised by a single mum on benefits). A Corbyn loyalist who stuck by him during the recent “coup”, she was rewarded with a top job. Despite her promotion, Thornberry has not lost her talent for gaffes. During a recent Sky News interview, she forgot the name of the French Foreign Minister and then attempted to divert attention by accusing the presenter, Dermot Murnaghan, of sexism.

Shadow Brexit secretary: Keir Starmer

A former director of public prosecutions, Starmer became the MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015. Previously a shadow minister on the home affairs team, he quit in the wake of the Brexit vote. An influential moderate who is tipped as a future leader, his return to the frontbench was seen as a signal that Corbyn’s rhetoric on unity was translating into action. But Starmer already appears to be at odds with the leader over immigration policy, saying that the Labour party must be open to supporting the end of current EU freedom of movement rules. Corbyn has previously stated that he doesn’t see immigration as a cause for concern.

Shadow health secretary: Jon Ashworth

The MP for Leicester South was an ally of Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband. He backed Yvette Cooper in the 2015 leadership election, but managed to keep a place in the shadow cabinet as minister without portfolio, and stayed in during the turbulent summer months.

Ashworth received a promotion in return for his loyalty, but also was forced to give up his all-important seat on the National Executive Committee.

Shadow education secretary: Angela Rayner

Rayner was only elected as the MP for Ashton-under-Lyme in 2015, but she has already made a name for herself as a charismatic speaker who has personal experience of the gritty side of life. Rayner was raised by a mother who could not read or write, was pregnant by 16 and left school with no qualifications. She came to politics through her work as a union rep. Although a loyal ally of Corbyn who juggled two shadow cabinet roles during the summer chaos, Rayner has potential as a unifying figure due to her praise for New Labour policies like Sure Start.

Shadow attorney general: Shami Chakrabarti

The appointment of the former director of the civil rights group Liberty to Labour’s frontbench has sparked controversy. A party member for a mere five months, Chakrabarti was awarded a peerage in August following her inquiry into alleged anti-Semitism in Labour. But some Corbyn critics have branded the inquiry she headed a “whitewash”, and she has recently found herself fending off allegations of hypocrisy due to her admission that her son attends a private school.

Shadow work and pensions secretary: Debbie Abrahams

The MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth since a by-election in January 2011, Abrahams took over the work and pensions brief from Owen Smith when he resigned to mount his leadership challenge. In her speech to Labour party conference she outlined her vision of a “socialist pension policy” and pledged to scrap the unpopular bedroom tax.

Shadow business secretary: Clive Lewis

Lewis has rapidly emerged as “first among the equals” among the younger generation of Corbynite MPs, and is regularly tipped as a possible successor to Jeremy Corbyn. A former soldier as well as a BBC producer, the MP for Norwich South's biography is far from that of the typical politician and would, allies believe, inoculate him on charges that he is “soft” on security issues.
He broke with his leader over defence policy, triggering his move to the Beis brief.

Opposition chief whip: Nick Brown

The MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East is back in charge of Labour party discipline, after his two stints as Chief Whip under Tony Blair (1997-9 and Gordon Brown (2008-10) in government. Ed Miliband stopped him continuing in the role in 2010, in order to have “a fresh start” and a “new generation” at the helm, which makes Corbyn’s appointment of the Brownite fixer a rather telling move. As Stephen writes, putting Brown (who supported Yvette Cooper for the leadership last year) in this position might comfort anti-Corbyn MPs fearing deselection, while employing a politician who specialises in seeing off coups is a big boost for Corbyn’s leadership. However, his surprise re-appointment – which meant the sacking of Rosie Winterton, who was his successor back in 2010 – has caused anger among some MPs supportive of Winterton, and Labour whips Holly Lynch and Conor McGinn have resigned.

Shadow justice secretary: Richard Burgon

One of the most loyal MPs to Corbyn, Richard Burgon has been on the frontbench since the Labour leader was elected last year. The MP for Leeds East started out as shadow city minister, a job that led him to being caught out by Channel 4 News for not knowing the UK deficit figure. Following Labour’s post-Brexit reshuffle, he replaced Charlie Falconer (the Blairite who had hitherto been committed to making it work under Corbyn) in the justice brief. Burgon continues in this position. Before being elected in 2015, the Cambridge-educated Burgon had been working as a trade union lawyer.

Shadow environment secretary: Rachael Maskell

Elected in 2015, Unite-backed MP and former NHS care worker and physiotherapist Rachael Maskell was first appointed to Corbyn’s frontbench last September, to the position of shadow minister for armed forces personnel and veterans. It was a tough first gig, in light of the Labour leader’s divisive decision at the time not to sing the National Anthem at a Battle of Britain memorial service. Following the post-Brexit exodus from Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, the MP for York Central was promoted to shadow Defra secretary, and is staying in the position. Though Maskell has remained loyal to Corbyn, she nominated Andy Burnham for the leadership last year.

Shadow leader of the House: Valerie Vaz

Valerie Vaz has been an MP since 2010, but her new role shadowing the Leader of the House of Commons is her first frontbench foray. Hitherto dedicated to a career on the committee corridor, serving in the health select committee and environment select committee among others, the MP for Walsall South was appointed to Corbyn’s team this October. A solicitor specialising in local government matters, Vaz came into politics via working as a councillor in west London, and getting a job as a lawyer for the civil service. She nominated Andy Burnham for the Labour leadership last year, and has since kept largely out of internal Labour warfare – unlike her brother and fellow MP, Keith. She was categorised as “Core group plus” in the leaked list of “hostile” MPs drawn up by Corbyn’s office earlier this year.

Shadow Scotland and Northern Ireland secretary: Dave Anderson

Anderson – who was elected MP for Blaydon in 2005 – has never had a shadow cabinet role before. Now he has two! Corbyn appointed him shadow Northern Ireland secretary in June, following the slew of resignations from his shadow cabinet, and gave him the Scotland brief shortly after. (Labour’s only MP representing a Scottish constituency, Ian Murray, told Julia his last conversation with Corbyn was when he resigned in June). Anderson has experience of Northern Ireland policy-making, having served on the select committee since becoming an MP. He was an opposition whip in Ed Miliband’s first year as leader, and under Corbyn too since the beginning of this year, and is supportive of Corbyn’s leadership. He is on the left of the party – writing to Miliband in January last year (alongside fellow left-wingers including Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott) calling for a change of direction towards rail nationalisation, empowering unions, and opposing austerity.

Shadow Wales secretary: Jo Stevens

Jo Stevens, who won Cardiff Central from the Lib Dems in 2015, was first appointed to Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench in January, as his shadow solicitor general (she is a former lawyer) in the shadow justice team. She was promoted to shadow secretary of state for Wales in the most recent reshuffle, taking over from Paul Flynn, who had been experiencing his first outing as a frontbencher at the age of 81. She nominated Andy Burnham for the leadership election, and backed Owen Smith’s subsequent leadership bid, saying it had become “painfully obvious” that Labour wasn’t fulfilling the role of opposition. But she remained on the frontbench, dismissed the vote of no-confidence in Corbyn as “self-indulgent”, and said it was “absolutely right” that he should automatically be put on the leadership ballot paper when challenged.

Shadow minister for voter engagement and youth affairs: Cat Smith

Cat Smith is a former parliamentary aide to Jeremy Corbyn, and a key ally. After being elected as the MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood in 2015, she nominated and voted for Corbyn. She became a member of the women and equalities select committee in September last year – a brief stint, leaving shortly after Corbyn appointed her shadow women and equalities minister. She was shuffled over in June this year to shadow voter engagement and youth affairs, a position she is staying in, in spite of exciting journalists by fleetingly removing the job title from her Twitter bio during the reshuffle.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury: Rebecca Long-Bailey

Part of the 2015 general election intake of MPs, Long-Bailey represents the safe Labour seat of Salford and Eccles in the northwest. The daughter of a local docker, she says growing up watching her parents struggle with debt and the threat of redundancy inspired her to stand up for workers’ rights. A key Corbyn ally, she nominated him for the leadership in 2015 and was then used by the leader to replace Hilary Benn on the NEC.

Shadow communities and local government secretary: Teresa Pearce

This is Pearce’s second shadow cabinet role. A Corbyn loyalist, she is standing in for Grahame Morris MP, who is on leave. She describes herself in her Twitter bio as being “angry about a lot, tired most of the time”. She had her first child at 18 and has said that the experience helped her understand how it feels to be “written off” by society.

Shadow housing secretary: John Healey

Healey is a returner to the shadow cabinet, having resigned from his post citing a lack of strong leadership in the wake of the Brexit vote. He is a frontbench veteran who has served under four different Labour leaders, and has a long history of campaigning for better social housing. Despite supporting Owen Smith’s leadership bid, he has returned to the fold advocating unity.

Shadow international trade secretary: Barry Gardiner

Unlike many of his colleagues, Gardiner has experience of serving in government, having been first elected in 1997 during the New Labour heyday (he served as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland office, Trade and Industry, and Defra). A committed environmentalist, he is an advocate of tougher energy policy and supports a ban on fracking. He defended Corbyn in the dark days after Brexit, saying he was shocked that the rest of the top team “went AWOL” and left the Tories with no opposition. Since the Corbyn’s re-election he has called on warring MPs to either come together or leave the party.

Shadow minister for women and equalities: Sarah Champion

One of the many MPs who resigned in June, Champion was the only one who soon after asked for her job back – officially unresigning. She was welcomed back by Corbyn, and his campaign group Momentum who tweeted “#WelcomeBackSarah”, and has now been promoted from her previous role as shadow minister for preventing abuse. The MP for Rotherham, she has campaigned passionately on behalf of the victims of the sexual abuse which occurred in her constituency between between 1997 and 2013.

Shadow lord president of the council: Jon Trickett

A Corbyn loyalist, the MP for Hemsworth served as shadow secretary for business, innovation and skills after Angela Eagle resigned. In the reshuffle, he made way for Clive Lewis but has the compensation of extra titles - he is not only shadow lord president, but national elections and campaigns co-ordinator.

Shadow leader of the House of Lords: Angela Smith

Baroness Smith of Basildon said in July that she was not convinced Corbyn could win a general election. In a damning interview with The Guardian, she described his performances as unimpressive and said that he lacked leadership qualities. Smith was elected to her position, and never officially resigned from the shadow cabinet - nor can Corbyn sack her.

House of Lords opposition chief whip: Lord Bassam of Brighton

A peer since 1997, Steve Bassam is another Corbyn critic who keeps his seat by virtue of election. A former squatter, Bassam entered politics through local campaigns in Brighton. After shadow cabinet MPs began to resign, Bassam stopped attending meetings of the shadow cabinet.

Shadow minister for the cabinet: Ian Lavery

A former miner, Lavery went on strike during the industrial disputes of the 1980s and became an active member of the Labour party. He built a career as a union activist and then stood for Parliament in 2010. The MP for Wansbeck became the shadow minister for trade unions and civil society in Corbyn's first shadow cabinet.

A longterm critic of austerity, Lavery was named as "core group least hostile" in a leaked document outlining Corbyn's friends and enemies.

Shadow minister for diverse communities: Dawn Butler

A former union worker, Butler was initially the MP for Brent South, but her constituency was abolished in 2010. Thanks to the Lib Dem collapse in 2015, though, Butler was able to get back in via Brent Central. She voted for Corbyn in the summer's no confidence vote, and said she was shocked by the conduct of the party in the aftermath of Brexit.

Shadow international development secretary: Kate Osamor

For Osamor, Labour politics is in her blood. She is the daughter of Martha Osamor, a vice chair of the Labour party’s black sections, which were instrumental in getting Diane Abbott, among others, elected to Parliament in 1987.

The MP for Edmonton is implacably loyal to Jeremy Corbyn and represents the shadow cabinet on the NEC.

Shadow transport secretary: Andy McDonald

McDonald is one of the biggest tendency in the Corbyn frontbench: MPs elected under Ed Miliband, whether at the 2015 election, or, in the case of McDonald, in a 2012 by-election.
The MP for Middlesborough stepped up first to replace Jonathan Reynolds as rail minister and again to replace Lillian Greenwood at transport.

Gwynne, a longtime ally of Andy Burnham, might have expected to serve on the NEC had Burnham’s leadership bid not faltered. He is well-regarded in the North-West and organised the party’s defence of Oldham West and Royton.

Keeley returns to the frontbench after a six year absence. She served as deputy leader of the house under Gordon Brown and now attends shadow cabinet as shadow minister for mental health and social care.

More than a year since Jeremy Corbyn’s historic election as leader of the Labour Party, the Blairite smears have not abated. Little wonder then that, in the last two weeks alone, two branches have backed motions calling for mandatory reselection of Labour MPs. The groups concerned are Chingford Labour Party and Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party.

Mandatory reselection, abolished under Tony Blair, simply means that for each election that takes place, candidates must be democratically decided by party members. This is not simply about removing MPs, but about restoring democracy to the Labour Party. It is basic democratic accountability.

Trade union general secretaries stand for election every five years and lay union representatives, working hard to represent their members while facing facility time cuts, between one and three years.

Why should an MP be any different?

Predictably, those on the right of the Labour Party recoil in horror when anyone mentions mandatory reselection. Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, described it as an “inherently intolerant mechanism”.

Labour’s pensioner buster Frank Field goes further still:

they [his constituents] are longing to have somebody that they can all boss around as if they have a view… there will be some, of course, that think that they can direct what MPs do, and if they want MPs like that, and have got MPs like that, they deserve them.
Their sense of entitlement for their careers is pathetic.

The Blairites are also hypocrites. Whilst they claim to oppose mandatory reselection, it has not stopped them organising a wholly undemocratic coup against Jeremy Corbyn, who, it seems, is now subjected to yearly mandatory reselection through doomed but divisive leadership challenges.

But the ball is now rolling. Let’s follow the example of Chingford, and Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party and get our local branches to support mandatory reselection.

The following template motion can be used to raise the issue in your branches.

Model motion
[Name of Labour Party branch] welcomes the reelection of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader as a reflection of the general mood in the Labour Party against austerity.
MPs have not got ‘jobs for life’. They represent their constituency but ultimately they are selected by and accountable to their Constituency Labour Party. To ensure democratic accountability and the rights of party members to select candidates that reflect their views, this branch supports the need for mandatory reselection of Labour MPs in each Parliament as essential.
We call on the [name of Labour Party branch] CLP to support a rule change to the Labour Party rulebook to reintroduce mandatory reselection of MPs before each general election.
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Your subscriptions go directly into paying our writers a standard fee for every article they produce. So if you want to help us stay truly independent, please think about subscribing. We literally couldn’t function without the support of our fantastic readers._________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

In secret conversations filmed by an undercover reporter, an employee at the Israeli embassy in London, Shai Masot, described his plans to set up a youth wing of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) organisation and revealed that he had set up other such organisations in the past.

Masot described taking delegations of Labour members on trips to Israel and told Joan Ryan, the chair of LFI, that he had been approved £1m ($1.2m) to fund further visits.

READ: Shai Masot, the Israeli Machiavelli caught in the act

He also said he had set up a group called “The City Friends of Israel” in collaboration with AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobbying organisation in the US.

Describing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as “crazy”, Masot said he had set up a youth-wing of the Conservative Friends of Israel in 2015 and wanted to do the same inside the Labour Party, but had been unsuccessful because of the “crisis” surrounding Corbyn's election as leader.

Masot also described Corbyn's supporters as "weirdos" and "extremists".

Corbyn is considered supportive of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which Masot elsewhere in the recordings said he had been tasked with discrediting and undermining.

Asked whether he had set up other groups in the UK, Masot said:' Nothing I can share, but yeah'
Corbyn's tenure in power has seen a parliamentary revolt against his leadership and the party's fortunes slide in the polls. He has also presided over a row within the party over the alleged presence - and toleration - of anti-Semitic views among members.

The conversations were covertly filmed by an undercover Al Jazeera reporter posing as a pro-Israel Labour activist who gained Masot's trust and infiltrated his circle so effectively that he was himself tasked with the job of establishing Young Labour Friends of Israel.

In a subsequent conversation, Masot stressed that the organisation should remain independent, but reiterated that the Israeli embassy could help.

Asked whether he had set up other groups in the UK, he said: “Nothing I can share, but yeah.”

He then said: “Yeah, because there are things that, you know, happen, but it’s good to leave those organisations independent. But we help them, actually.”

Shai Masot was secretly filmed over a number of months (Al Jazeera)
The undercover reporter also caught pro-Israel Labour activists on film describing financial support that they had received from the Israeli embassy.

In one conversation filmed outside a London pub, Michael Rubin, the parliamentary officer for LFI and a former leader of Labour Students, said: “Shai spoke to me and said the Israeli embassy will be able to get a bit of money as well, which is good... he said he’s happy to sort of help fund a couple of events so it makes it easier, so I don’t think money should be a problem really.”

Rubin also said that he and Masot “work really closely together... but a lot of it is behind the scenes”.

The latest revelations come as the UK government on Sunday faced mounting calls for an inquiry into the activities of Masot, a senior political officer based in Israel's embassy in London who was secretly filmed plotting to “take down” government ministers and MPs considered to be causing “problems” for Israel.

They included Alan Duncan, a foreign office minister who has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel's illegal West Bank settlement programme, and Crispin Blunt, the influential chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs select committee.

The tapes also exposed the extent of Israeli influence within the ruling Conservative Party, with one assistant to Robert Halfon, a junior education minister, boasting about how she had planted parliamentary questions, and describing how “pretty much” every Conservative MP was a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

Masot complained that the Labour Party under Corbyn, who in a meeting with activists in 2009 referred to the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah as “friends”, had proved harder to influence, despite its historic links with Israel.

“Not a lot of people want to be affiliated,” says Masot in the video recording. “Obviously when they become MPs they won’t be affiliated and then that’s it, the chain is done. Because for years, every MP that joined the parliament, the first thing that he used to do is go to join the LFI.”

In footage filmed at last September's Labour conference in Liverpool, Masot is seen discussing plans with Joan Ryan, the MP for Enfield North in London, for a forthcoming visit by LFI members to Israel.

“What happened with the names that we put into the Embassy, Shai?” Ryan inquired.

“Just now we’ve got the money, it’s more than one million pounds, it’s a lot of money,” Masot replied.

“I know, it must be,” said Ryan.

“And now I’ve got the money so from Israel so… it’s not physical, it’s an approval,” Masot continued to explain.

“I didn’t think you had it in your bag!” joked Ryan.

OBORNE: Is May's government complicit in Israeli interference in UK politics?

The exchange prompted a call from Sir Hugo Swire, a Conservative MP who chairs the Conservative Middle East Council, for the Friends of Israel organisations linked to all of the UK's main parties to disclose their funding arrangements.

“There are serious questions to be asked,” Swire told MEE. “This raises a whole lot of issues on a whole lot of different levels. The Conservative Middle East Council is a properly affiliated organisation within the Conservative Party. Therefore we have to fall within the parameters of corporate donations and individual donations as does the party itself.

He said that certain groups were not officially accredited to their respective parties. "I do think the time has come for these organisations to come out public and reveal how they are funded and where they are funded from.”

I do think the time has come for these organisations to come out public and reveal how they are funded and where they are funded from

- Sir Hugo Swire, Conservative MP
Labour on Sunday called for a full investigation into Masot's activities, after the government on Saturday said it considered the matter closed following an apology to Duncan from Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador.

Emily Thornberry, Labour's shadow foreign minister, said: “The exposure of an Israeli embassy official discussing how to bring down or discredit a government minister and other MPs because of their views on the Middle East is extremely disturbing.

“Improper interference in our democratic politics by other states is unacceptable whichever country is involved. It is simply not good enough for the Foreign Office to say the matter is closed. This is a national security issue.

“The embassy official involved should be withdrawn, and the government should launch an immediate inquiry into the extent of this improper interference and demand from the Israeli government that it be brought to an end.”

Labour has been backed in its call for an inquiry by the Scottish National Party and several senior Conservative MPs.

Crispin Blunt told MEE: "What we cannot have is Israel acting in the UK with the same impunity it enjoys in Palestine.

"This is clearly interference in another country's politics of the murkiest and most discreditable kind."

'What we cannot have is Israel acting in the UK with the same impunity it enjoys in Palestine'

- Crispin Blunt, Conservative MP
Nicholas Soames, another Conservative MP, told MEE's Peter Oborne: “This ranks as the equivalent of Soviet intelligence in what they are doing to suborn democracy and interfere in due process.”

Writing anonymously in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, a former minister in the previous government led by David Cameron, said that British foreign policy was “in hock to Israeli influence at the heart of our politics.

“For years the CFI and LFI have worked with – even for – the Israeli embassy to promote Israeli policy and thwart UK government policy and the actions of ministers who try to defend Palestinian rights.”

The Israeli embassy has sought to play down Masot's seniority describing him as a “junior embassy employee” whose remarks had been “completely unacceptable”.

That open letter from a Labour Party member to infighting Blairites is bang on. No wonder everyone is reading it [IMAGE]UK
An open letter from a member of the Labour Party to the General Secretary of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) is lighting up the internet. As it should.

The letter to Iain McNicol

Iain McNicol presided over not one but two Labour Party purges aimed at shedding the party of pro-Corbyn members ahead of leadership elections. Despite this, the Labour leader won both, with landslide victories. Since then, the party has won almost every by-election it has fought, and four mayoral elections. All in the face of a universally hostile mainstream media, and significant opposition from right-wing factions within the party itself. And that includes from McNicol.

Labour Party member Frank Hutton has captured this calamity beautifully. When McNicol wrote to Mr Hutton asking for a donation to the party, Hutton chose to deliver some home truths instead.

The Conservative government is on the ropes. Its budget is in tatters. It is under investigation for electoral fraud. It has no plan for Brexit. And it is turning on itself.

This is the time for Labour to present a unified and tenacious opposition. But while Labour MPs should be standing for their constituents, they are holding a sit-in against their own leader.

Enough. McNicol expelled Labour Party members for retweeting the Green Party, so the party should certainly expel Labour MPs for propping up a Conservative government. It is time that these MPs get in line and do their job. Or lose their job in favour of people of principle who will.

Today, Britain goes to the polls. And frankly, I’m shocked that no one has stood up and said, unambiguously, how profoundly dangerous it would be for the nation if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister. So let me be clear, the leader of the Labour Party is an old-fashioned international socialist who has forged links with those quite ready to use terror when they haven’t got their way: the IRA, Hizbollah, Hamas. As a result he is completely unfit to govern and Britain would be less safe with him in No 10.

I can give an indication of just how serious this is: if Jeremy Corbyn was applying to join any of this country’s security services – MI5, GCHQ or the service I used to run, MI6 – he would not be cleared to do so. He would be rejected by the vetting process. Far from being able to get into MI5, in the past MI5 would actively have investigated him. And yet this is the man who seeks the very highest office, who hopes in just 24 hours time to run our security services.

Sir Richard Dearlove, Bilderberg steering committee & former director general, chief of MI6_________________--
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.comhttp://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."

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